Hero Takes A Fall
by glittergoddess13
Summary: A first solo gig for Dean starts it all, and on this one night, all three Winchesters will end up with a dark mark inside them. Trouble is the cause of if is their own making, but they just can't break the circle. John with teen Sam & Dean. Family pai


The capstone spark disappeared well before his eager hand slipped over her tepid fingers. No warmth. No reaction. The long, tender structures lay motionless in his grip and refused to return the tenderness of the embrace. Suddenly, he whispered, begging for a response, but she faded. With shaking hands, Dean encircled the slender hand tighter, feeling the burned skin of the toddler crumble inside his palm.

"I'm a--."

Her lost life squashed in between his guilt-dirty fingers. This wasn't right. Never right. Instinctively, he turned, searching for this steady companions- his father and Sam, even though this job was his alone. This time, there was no guidance or reassurance of his family. Gingerly, he squared his attention back towards her. With quivering eyes glued to her form, he unknowingly squeezed a plea upon her hand. This wasn't right. It wasn't supposed to happen like this.

"Winchester's don't lose," he said under breath.

When he thought about the excitement he felt at the beginning of this battle, he pitched forward, kneeling as if in prayer. As his father challenged a first solo gig, he'd nearly jumped in the car to instantly take off this morning. At fourteen, Dean wondered why his father's trust had taken this long. Since his eyes cracked open early this morning, he prepared and expected every outcome in this battle, except he never figured on her—not this innocent, whisp of a girl.

"I killed—I did this." With the gulp of his careless conscience, he scarfed in a geyser of charcoal smoke. He swatted at the strangle as if a welcomed distraction, taking away his focus from this screw-up. Great plumes of smoke embraced him, heralding the approaching blaze, but he simply froze next to the child. In the middle of the inferno hell, he saw only her. Just a few seconds cost this girl the spark of life. If only he had been a smidge kinder or faster, he could have save her. He should have saved her.

Slim minutes ago, he flicked the lighter with a motion of his thumb, taunting the waving flame at a vicious, foul-smelling Hundun. Insultingly, he flashed a winning, casual smirk at the beast. He said the usual smartass banter, and, then, the teasing over, he ignited the lighter fluid on the structure until the flames celebrated his victory. Quick and Dirty. Record kill in record time. No frills first solo kill. Winchesters win- always win.

Patting on the back, Dean signaled a thumbs up from a nearby window to his waiting father below. That should have been it. A jump out of the window, a trek down the fire escape, and then a job well done beer. His father would be proud of this decisive, smooth victory. All of that thought fell when she screamed out in pain. Whatever pride he felt, instantly died with that girl's desperate and timid cries for help. Suddenly, that sound was all that mattered.

Empty of thought, Dean frantically ran. His legs pumped across the cracking, burning, and rotting floor of the abandoned apartment complex. All the while, the structure sizzled and protested his progress with debris and pillars of strangling smoke. Flame ribbons twisted, curled, and slithered towards the ceiling and archways, even taking over the stairwells with heat and smoke.

Dean's arms spun like helicopter propels, fruitlessly trying to create a path to the voice. Soon the ebony drafts overpowered him, and he collapsed on the floor, crawling upon the embers on his knees and bare hands.

By luck and beyond reason, he saw her. Everything covered with a garroting layers of soot, ash, and debris, but there she was—angelic like in the way the filth didn't seem to stick on her pale face.

"I've got you. I've got you," Dean cried just before he grasped her lifeless hand. "You're going home!"

Automatically, his hand outstretched for the nameless child, who remained still, as if listening to the shattered drumming of Dean's heart.

"I'm a murderer!"


End file.
